Arcene: The Island Read Online Free PDF Page B

and Leel's frantic moans as the massive body of the dog descended at a faster rate.
    Something slammed into Arcene's side and she was spun to her right, tossed around like she was caught in a riptide until she didn't know which way up she was. Branches slapped her body as she continued to fall. She did the only thing she could think of: she reached up above her head and hooked her hands, hoping she would catch a branch.
    She continued to fall.
    "Ugh! Ow, ow ow." Arcene's bottom felt like she'd been slapped with a bat. But at least she wasn't moving. She was sat on a wide branch, legs dangling over the edge like she was just having a nice time climbing trees and hadn't just lost her transport home and had no clue where she was. She wobbled and began to topple backward but put out a hand to steady herself.
    "Leel, are you okay?" The sound of Leel's bulky frame breaking branches and snapping twigs had stopped, so hopefully Leel was sat on a branch too, or could she be dead?
    Her own predicament forgotten, Arcene let her mind go to that special place that gave access to The Noise, the place that wasn't a place, the thing that was no thing, the energy behind reality, the energy that was everything, that those who were Awoken were granted access to, and she let her mind expand and reach out into the forest.
    It was almost a single entity when seen via The Noise: old, ancient, a slumbering presence made up of countless trees each with their own personality and a tiny sense of self buried deep down and unknowable in a dream world they never even knew they were a part of, but there nonetheless. Arcene wasn't hunting for tree life though, she expanded her consciousness, searched for sentience, for her friend, nervous and afraid — Leel couldn't be dead, she just couldn't be. What would she do without her?
    There, there she was! And alive. "Yes." Arcene felt as much as saw the happy glow of the blue Great Dane, although that was just the name of a breed created by humans hundreds of years ago.
    Now the blue was almost genuine, a deep hue that practically shone after the endless breeding programs that resulted in Leel, not exactly the pinnacle of Marcus' success, the man that had bred her, who had been rather disappointed she had turned out to be the fun-loving, excitable and rather needy Leel, soppy and like a child even at nine, rather than the fierce guard dog she was supposed to be. But she was alive.
    Her friend, her best friend, she was alive and showing a strong lifeforce in The Noise where there was no place to hide and your true self was revealed to those with the power to look behind the thin veneer of what others took to be reality.
    Arcene smiled and withdrew to the regular world. She used her Awoken state to force her pupils to dilate as much as was possible without risking permanent damage, and the signal her eyes sent to her brain slowly made sense.
    It was like looking through night vision goggles, an ancient artifact she had once spent a week wearing constantly after she found them, never once taking them off, exploring the world in a way that had left her disoriented for days as she tried to adjust to the fact that the world wasn't tinged green and when it was dark it was dark.
    Bending forward, Arcene peered down through the gaps in the branches to where she had seen Leel. There she was, spread-eagled across two branches, paws over her eyes like it would make it all go away and everything would be all right.
    That dog is so stupid, but I suppose it's better than her trying to jump down and getting impaled on a branch.
    A terrible thought came to Arcene, and she reached over her shoulder in panic — it was still there, her sword, her constant companion apart from Leel. An ancient sword, blade still as sharp and deadly as when it was made many lifetimes ago in Japan, a place Arcene wished she had been born in — the tales of Samurai held her in thrall whenever she read of them and their exploits, her love of anime and